The above is the Web 2.0 Tool I chose to review. The website is called GoAnimate. Immediately you see a homepage full of colors and pictures or videos drawing you in. The main page also gives the basic information of the site. GoAnimate helps students and even adults, create their own cartoon characters for the cartoons they will create. A person can play with the website a little bit without being a member. To save any characters and cartoons that have been created, the user must sign up to be a member. Signing up is easy and free.
I have given a link to the cartoon I have created. Within the cartoon I added the characters I had created. All of their words and actions were made by me. Firstly, I had to make the characters. To create the characters the user has to specifiy if they want to make a boy or girl. Then the user can chose clothes, hairstyles, the color of the eyes, and the color of the hair. After making the character to the user's satisfaction, the character will be saved and can be added to the cartoon. For the cartoon the site gave me a storyboard with multiple slots for many scenes. I chose to only do two scenes. For the first, I had to chose the setting of the cartoon, therefore I chose a background. Then I decided which characters I wanted to use and put them in the areas they were to be. I could have moved furniture around if I had wanted. Next I added movement and expression to each character. After their movement was to my satisfaction, I gave them words to speak and voices. When using the voice tool, I could have either typed in the words I wanted to be spoken or I could have spoken them into a microphone which would have been recorded by the site. I chose to write the words because the choices for character voices were very funny and I very much enjoyed listening to them. I also made sure that all of the movements and sounds happened at the correct time. There is a bar displaying the time frame for certain things to happen. This bar becomes visible when you click on specific areas, like on the girl or the boys. After I previewed it and tweaked the cartoon multiple times, I published it. The website was very easy to navigate, and the controls for the creation of characters and cartoons were easy to manage and find.
In my classroom, I would use this during the writing portions of my classes, maybe even during a unit about plays like Shakespearean plays. When teaching middle school, I understand that my students will have already learned how to and are continuously moving through the process of writing papers and essays. Using this tool, I can shake up their writing experience. They would all use my user, so they wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of signing up. Before using the site, I would notify parents and talk to them about the site. I would also mention that I would help them and their students, if their student would like to continue to use the site without school reasons. I would definately recommend this tool to other teachers and parents. It is a great tool for an imaginative mind.
This is the Cast Book that have created. It is called All About Fall.
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GoAnimate.com: Excitement by raugi
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!
http://goanimate.com/movie/0ttHgQlViiFU/1
The above is the Web 2.0 Tool I chose to review. The website is called GoAnimate. Immediately you see a homepage full of colors and pictures or videos drawing you in. The main page also gives the basic information of the site. GoAnimate helps students and even adults, create their own cartoon characters for the cartoons they will create. A person can play with the website a little bit without being a member. To save any characters and cartoons that have been created, the user must sign up to be a member. Signing up is easy and free.
I have given a link to the cartoon I have created. Within the cartoon I added the characters I had created. All of their words and actions were made by me. Firstly, I had to make the characters. To create the characters the user has to specifiy if they want to make a boy or girl. Then the user can chose clothes, hairstyles, the color of the eyes, and the color of the hair. After making the character to the user's satisfaction, the character will be saved and can be added to the cartoon. For the cartoon the site gave me a storyboard with multiple slots for many scenes. I chose to only do two scenes. For the first, I had to chose the setting of the cartoon, therefore I chose a background. Then I decided which characters I wanted to use and put them in the areas they were to be. I could have moved furniture around if I had wanted. Next I added movement and expression to each character. After their movement was to my satisfaction, I gave them words to speak and voices. When using the voice tool, I could have either typed in the words I wanted to be spoken or I could have spoken them into a microphone which would have been recorded by the site. I chose to write the words because the choices for character voices were very funny and I very much enjoyed listening to them. I also made sure that all of the movements and sounds happened at the correct time. There is a bar displaying the time frame for certain things to happen. This bar becomes visible when you click on specific areas, like on the girl or the boys. After I previewed it and tweaked the cartoon multiple times, I published it. The website was very easy to navigate, and the controls for the creation of characters and cartoons were easy to manage and find.
In my classroom, I would use this during the writing portions of my classes, maybe even during a unit about plays like Shakespearean plays. When teaching middle school, I understand that my students will have already learned how to and are continuously moving through the process of writing papers and essays. Using this tool, I can shake up their writing experience. They would all use my user, so they wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of signing up. Before using the site, I would notify parents and talk to them about the site. I would also mention that I would help them and their students, if their student would like to continue to use the site without school reasons. I would definately recommend this tool to other teachers and parents. It is a great tool for an imaginative mind.
This is the Cast Book that have created. It is called All About Fall.
http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=view&book=35382&page=1